What We Played #361 – Onrush, H1Z1 & Jurassic World Evolution

Only 360 days until E3!

Dominic Leighton, 5 months ago, 15 comments.

E3 is done with! Unless of course you live somewhere nearer Los Angeles than we do and can actually go play some of the sweet sweet game demos of things, we have to wait a while to get our hands on over the next few months. There’ve been quite a few late nights at TSA towers, but we’ve somehow managed to also play some games between the press conferences. Since it was E3, I also got the team to tell me what has got them hot under the collar, so there’s some of that going on too.

I’ve played Jurassic World Evolution for review, and it’s now a permanent fixture in our house thanks to a dinosaur obsessed son. The only ‘problem’ is that it’s little too complicated for him to play so I’m being forced to play it under his watchful supervision. His greatest idea so far today was building a battle arena to put dinosaurs in and see who emerges victorious. It was a huge success. Besides that I’m ploughing into Elder Scrolls Online’s Summerset expansion, have made a start on Mario Tennis Aces for review, and played some more Onrush which I heartily recommend.

As far as E3 goes, there was a ton of stuff that I’m excited for, but Gears Tactics, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Forza Horizon 4, Starlink and Rage 2 all tick the right boxes.

Tef was first to step up to the plate this week, and he’s been playing Destiny 2, Fortnite on Switch, Pode for review and a spot of Jurassic World Evolution. He’s gone for one of those rare Microsoft exclusives for his E3 pick: Halo Infinite. “I’ve always liked Halo games, but there was something magical about the feel of the in engine, completely not representative trailers of the first game from 1999 and 2000. It felt like this who open world – open ring? – and I used to daydream about how cool that would be, waging a whole war across a Halo. There’s no official word on what Infinite will bring, but that’s what its announcement trailer brings to mind, with the wildlife, the shift from day to night as the name was announced, the sheer scale of the environments. Very keen to see more. Very.” Besides that Forza Horizon 4, Ghost of Tsushima and Cyberpunk 2077 are up there for him as well.

Tuffcub has been playing the Just Cause 3 DLC packs after he nabbed them in the current PSN sale, and he’s regularly dipping into H1Z1 – “I came third the other night which is a personal best”. He did turn Destiny 2 on for a few moments to try out the Crucible Labs, but couldn’t see them anywhere in the game so turned it off again. His most lusted after game of E3 is Death Stranding as “it features lots of naked Norm”.

Kris played a bit of Tomb of the Mask on iOS, which he gives the glowing review of being “pretty enjoyable”. He’s also basically played all four The Room games, which he loves, and Returner 77, which is seemingly pretty similar, and was what inspired him to play through all of The Room games in the first place. As far as E3 goes he seems pretty excited about one game in particular: “GIVE ME SESSION. GIVE ME IT NOW. WHO MUST I SHAKE TO GET IT I NEED IT. Also Spider-Man still looks really good and that fighting game with all the anime characters seemed neat I guess?”

Jason has been enjoying Jurassic World Evolution saying, “the dinosaurs in it look great and it’s kind of fun to free them to make the park more entertaining”. He’s also playing Insane Robots for review, and his picks of E3 are Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Dying Light 2. Aran meanwhile played a bit more Onrush and hit level 40. He also tried a bit of XCOM 2 as well, but needs to properly sit down with it. His pick for E3 was the fabulous-looking Ghost of Tsushima.

Jim was also on the Onrush bandwagon before grabbing Quake Champions while it’s free this week. He said, “It’s an awesome arena shooter that will hopefully make the jump to consoles at some point”. He also finally started Life Is Strange too after having so many people recommend it. “While I’ve grown a bit bored of Telltale-esque adventure games, this one has gripped me with some great and engaging characters.”

Miguel played and beat Night In The Woods, saying “phew boy was that game kinda depressing”. He also played more Rainbow Skies for review, and started playing Minit. Jake’s been trying to beat the newest Raid Lair in Destiny 2 with friends from time to time, but the game is getting stale again for him. “I may have developed a slight addiction to Pokémon Quest as a result of this, though. I’ve also managed to play through Unravel Two for the review, and some Hexologic for another review.”

The game that he’s looking forward to the most is Spider-Man, and luckily it’s out sooner than many of the other games shown. “The game just looks like it’ll be fun and relatively simple to master, while having the freedom to be silly, explore and experiment with abilities. Insomniac Games is also my favourite developer purely down to their animation work and humour. I just think Spider-Man is a very good fit for them as a project as well and it’s technically and visually impressive given the scale of everything.”

Steve has alternated between Crash Bandicoot 2, “which is miles better than the frustrating first one”, and God of War, “which is sublime and cinematic but feels a bit too much like Horizon: Zero Dawn rather than a Kratos game. I love Horizon but miss the more arcadey feel of old school Kratos. Still, it is moving, well written and totally immersed in Norse mythology.” He’s most excited about a remake after E3, but it does look pretty great! “Resident Evil 2 is my new crush. I’m not saying I’d offer up my children for it, but if they misbehave over the long summer holiday I’ll be drafting an email to Capcom asking about a trade-in deal.”

Finally, Ade picked up God of War. “It’s very good. Not 10/10 good, but it’s slick, beautiful and few things are as satisfying as Kratos thwacking his massive chopper over the brow of an unsuspecting Draugr.” He’s most looking forward to Ghost of Tsushima, saying the E3 trailer was “utterly jaw dropping”.

Mostly the same stuff from recent weeks. Plenty of Monster Huntering. That’s a word, surely?

And Burnout Paradise thanks to that nice sale. Still as fun as it was back on the PS3.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was a bit disappointing though. But it was on sale, so that probably makes up for it. Looks very nice, just short and a bit lacking in something. Should have been DLC rather than a standalone game. I’d be annoyed if I paid full price.

And a bit of Fallout Shelter, which works well on the PS4 and is fun to pop in and see how it’s doing.

An attempt at clearing a bit of the backlog meant I played a bit of Knack, for some reason. Luckily it was a PS+ game, because it’s a bit shit. Well, flawed might be a better word. Terrible checkpoints. And goes on about 3 times as long as it should. I’ll get through it eventually and clear some space.

And some codblops3. It’d be rude not to after they randomly gave it away for free. The campaign is entertaining nonsense, if a bit brown. The zombies mode is utter crap. And a bit brown. Multiplayer isn’t bad. At least you can find a game quickly, and I’m frequently getting into the top 3. Unless the lack of decent matchmaking puts me up against people who can kill me 5 times in the first 3 seconds of a game.

Oh, and I had a bit of a go at the battle royale mode in Rec Room. It’s attracted a lot of annoying kids. But it’s fun. Only 16 players though. Could do with more, or a smaller map. I kept ending up in second place. Not always after dying covered in bees. (It pushes you towards the centre, as is the custom in battle royale games, by sending a swarm of angry bees your way, which is suitably silly). Still a lot of apologising for killing people and congratulating those who do kill you. And the annoying kids still don’t realise just how good the sound positioning is in VR, so it’s easy to hunt them down and shut them up.

I’d be up for a meet. That slightly annoying trophy is slightly annoying you’re right, there’s plenty of others in the DLC that are slightly annoying too, I’m sure we could rattle through a couple of dozen of them whilst enjoying ourselves too!

Back from the festival and picked up Vampyr…. took a while to get into it. The combat feels clunky until you learn the combos and such. Did enjoy it but the side missions are quite annoying. And the worst part are the ‘effing collectibles! I hate their style of collectibles. I had to make a few manual saves just to make sure I got them all. And if I didn’t I’m not gonna both get Vampyr Plat! Far too many games out there and I want to enjoy every single of them. After I complete Vampyr, Detriot will be my next game to play.
Occasionally dabble in H1Z1 Solo and Dous…. it’s still fun xD

Finished my first playthrough of Detroit and it’s fantastic. Loved everything about it.

Batman Arkham VR: Brilliant, although I was disappointed there were no segments in the Batmobile. Also, not being able to move freely was unfortunate but it would have had to be a completely different game for that to happen. Once I adjusted my expectations, I really enjoyed the game on it’s own merits. I think I might be the only gamer in the world who made their Batman Vogue in the mirror (so funny!). Poor Batman. Well, hopefully, there will be more VR Batman games in the future because I really enjoyed this one.

VR worlds Shark Dive… amazing! When the shark rips the door off the cage… 💩 Great experience and so much fun convincing others to play and watching them freak out.

Robinson: The Journey… Really liking this game. The first VR game I’ve played with the ability to walk around freely. I’ve changed the movement settings to smooth and it’s great. Haven’t experienced any motion sickness – in fact, I kinda wish I could speed up the character movement because it’s a touch too slow. It does feel a little strange having to use the DS4 – I wish Sony should redesign the Move controllers to include a joystick – it would make a huge difference.

Finally, Roller Coaster Legends I & II which were great fun AND the Star Wars VR mission which might be the best thing I’ve played in VR yet. Amazing! I’ve played it at least ten times already!

So yes, loving the PSVR but I’ve deliberately saved the ‘scary’ games ‘til last. I keep trying to psyche myself up for Paranormal Activity but I just can’t do it 😂

Making Batman do all sorts of shenanigans in the mirror is normal, I think. Because you’re Batman. In front of a mirror.

And if you’ve got VR Worlds, enjoy the London Heist “game”. Remember to do exactly what you think you should be able to do. Smoke a cigar. Drink in the van. Lean back on that nice comfy pub seat. (Actually, DO NOT do that last one. It ends badly)

VR is at it’s best when the little things just work. Pull the pin on a grenade with your teeth (well, hold the control to your face) in Shooty Fruity. Suck on a cigar in London Heist. All those little things.

Also, try the BBC VR thing for some football thing that’s going on at the moment. When a match is on.

Even if you don’t like football, or won’t be getting some sort of cheap thrill out of footballers running around, it’s pretty impressive. Hopefully the BBC will be doing more of that in future. Other sporting events maybe. Or something like Glastonbury.

First, I was tempted to get Mass Effect Andromeda in the sale, but found out there’s a demo, so played that to decide. It wasn’t nearly as good as the last two, so was deleted and I saved some money.
After that, I watched a fairly disappointing E3. Somehow I’ll get over the sad fact Alien:Isolation 2 wasn’t announced, but it’ll take time.
Then, I made a small progress in Bloodborne (of which a sequel wasn’t announced either, sadly). With the kind help of a blonde heroine, I managed to kill the floating spider and entered Yahar’gul.
And finally, I started playing Tacoma. After masterpiece Gone Home, expectations were very high, and this one didn’t click with me so far, but I’ll give it some more time.

Mainly Vampyr, which is quite fun if you treat it as the AA it is, instead of an AAA. Also a bit of Wolfenstein II, which i bought in the recent sale, and also a bit of Life is Strange: Before the Storm, which i played until the middle of the third episode and now use as an easy daily trophy game for the days of play competition (which, thinking about it, i never heard a word about here on TSA…)

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